I need your wisdom!

[EyelykPot1]

Good morning everybody...I have a serious problem that has killed several of my female seedlings.
My hydro setup causing issues was an 18 gallon res DWC bubbler system. No nutes, ph at 5.8. My seedlings developed a mucousy substance on the bottom of the net pots and roots. All growth stopped. I wiped it off on two consecutive mornings, and decided to transplant the 8 seedlings into new net pots. The water in the res had no smell or anything strange, so I left it alone. When I woke up this morning, the mucousy crap was back, and the res smelled like there was a dead body in it. I dumped the water out, and got another smaller systrem I have that holds 4 plants in a 4 gallon res. I put my 4 plants that have survived in the small res and adjusted ph.
Here is my question, is my 18 gallon res not getting enough aeration, it has a 10 inch bubble stone? I don't know what to do, everything I read by all of you says that you need a big res for roots to develop fully, so I am fully confused. Any help will be greatly appreciated!!

EyelykPot1 Reviewed by EyelykPot1 on 07-20-2008. I need your wisdom! Good morning everybody...I have a serious problem that has killed several of my female seedlings. My hydro setup causing issues was an 18 gallon res DWC bubbler system. No nutes, ph at 5.8. My seedlings developed a mucousy substance on the bottom of the net pots and roots. All growth stopped. I wiped it off on two consecutive mornings, and decided to transplant the 8 seedlings into new net pots. The water in the res had no smell or anything strange, so I left it alone. When I woke up this Rating: 5

[hudson88]

18 gallon is a pretty big res, I'd say you probably need more than one airstone, but i dunno if that alone would give you the problem you had. High res temps can cause problems, do you know the temp of your res? 20C is perfect, over 25C and problems start.

You should have a look around at some root rot treatments, h202 or cannazyme might be worth a look at.

[EyelykPot1]

Thanks Hudson88, I ordered 2 airstones and a dual pump today. I think that is the problem because started a grow before in a 6 gallon res (had to terminate before I could flower) with 6 plants and the veg growth was vigorous. So I will see and hope it all works out. I appreciate the quick response and wise advice!

[EyelykPot1]

Res temps I will monitor too as I was closing the closet door at night with 3 65 watt CFLs. That also seems likely to have caused a problem. I am going to an 18/6 light schedule and see if that makes a difference. Thanks again Hudson88, you the man!

[Weedhound]

more oxygenation definitely.....

A LOT more!

I have a 10 gallon DWC (holds 5 gals of actual water) and have at LEAST triple the airflow through it.

Also consider some good zyme products for root health.

Anytime something seems off to you......do a rez change......you'd be surprised at what that may accomplish.

[Opie Yutts]

You don't need a huge res for big plants. Check out my LSTTT thread to see what an Emily's Garden setup can do. I had 6 plants in a 2 gallon res, and things were great. The key to not getting root rot and other problems (not to mention huge, healthy plants) is getting air to the roots, the more the better. It is impossible to have too much air in your water. Plants want air just as much, or maybe even more than they want water. Also, change your res as often as you can stand, up to once per day. In the Emily's Garden I feed when the nutes run low, and try to do a complete flush at least once every 3 weeks, but more often is better. Watch your res temps, you may want to consider a chiller. Higher temps mean faster growth but bigger chance of root rot. Lower temps mean slow growth, but little risk of rot. I forgot the ideal res temp, but I just try to keep my environment below 85, preferably 82, and I assume the water is close to that.

And WH speaks the truth about root conditioner. I use SubCulture, recommended by Rhizome.

[EyelykPot1]

Thanks again for all your help! I was like most newbies, and you think that little changes are really a no brainer, and then you blow $200 in seeds learning the hard way. I will put in an order for the root treatment stuff, and I am getting 2 airstones to add to my res. And a drainage system to ease the changing of my res water. And I know I made a huge mistake when I closed the door in my closet at night with a total of 4 65 watt cfls. When I opened the door in the morning it was around 90 degrees in there and I guess that is root rot heaven! I have changed my lights back to 18/6 to keep nighttime temps down. I am getting a Homebox delivered on Tuesday (3.5ftx3.5ft.5.3ft) and a clonong setup. I will probably set up tent as a veg growth area with a carbon filter/fan, attached to a thermometer that turns on when the tent hits a certain temp. And I will keep a mother plant for clones and clones in veg stage in there. I will use the 8 plant res(18 gal) for flowering and have another carbon fan/filter in my closet. For lights, I will be getting 3 100 watt veg cfls, 3 100 bloom cfls, with reflectors delivered tomorrow as well as 2 105 watt multispectrum lights that emit 7,000 lumens and reflectors for those too! Heat is an issue as I live in an apartment building(luckily I am around most of the time), that is why I have decided on cfls for now. In another closet I have 8 Lowlife AK 47s x Hindu Kush and they are doing well, seedlings are about 9 days old. I read that they only needed bloom lights, but I used those the first 6 days and had little root growth, changed to 2 65 watts of veg grow cfls and 1 65 watt bloom and and now the roots are growing rapidly. I know that it is important to keep both spectrums of light on my babies, and I will crank up the wattage with my new lights arriving (especially on my bloom phase!). I have read many threads by you guys and I will keep you informed how things get going! Thanks again Hudson, Weedhound and Opie!!

[EyelykPot1]

Just ordered three 1 oz. GH Subculture pouches on amazon.com. Will add asap!!

[Opie Yutts]

Sounds like your on the way. Half the fun is getting things figured out, the other half is the huge buds in the bag. What are Lowlife AK 47s?

[hudson88]

Hey opie, lowlife is the company same one that do lowriders.

So i pressume lowlife ak47 is a lowriderxak47 autoflowering cross